


Ghosts

by rikurespecter (BigDykeEnergy)



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Ficlet, Gen, Grieving, Riku & Maleficent - Freeform, post ReMind, this was supposed to be a warmup, unbetad. thats sexy right?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:06:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25225786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BigDykeEnergy/pseuds/rikurespecter
Summary: He ascended the handful of narrow stairs onto a richly embroidered rug. On all sides, stretching to the elevated ceiling of the hexagonal room, were mirrors, ringed at their edges in pale frost.He drew closer and touched his fingers to the glass. It was ice-cold and solid.Another face drifted into view: pale, narrow, and crowned by curling horns.Riku spun, pressing back into the wall.“It’s terribly rude to arrive uninvited,” Maleficent said. “Even to one’s own home.”---As the hunt for Sora drags on, Riku's desire for answers takes him to desperate places.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 41





	Ghosts

Riku followed the winding trail through briar after briar, keeping with caution to the well-tread rut in its center. The darkened spires of the castle cast a striking silhouette, their looming towers cutting into the deep gray sky. He kept them in his sights over the canopy of thorns sprawling on all sides, periodically scanning the dense wilderness beyond the trail from the corner of his eye.

The nearer he drew to the castle, the more hostile the forest of thorns became. They pressed in on either side, snaking and weaving into a thicker and thicker labyrinth, until Riku was forced to climb and contort to continue onwards. By the time the pale, hazy green beyond the forest began to seep through the tapestry, Riku was holding his breath to drag himself through barely-passable gaps.

He misjudged the last opening as he finally broke through the thicket, and the needle-sharp point of a massive thorn dragged over his jaw before he stumbled out into blessedly open space.

He righted himself. A narrow stone bridge stretched before him, punctuated by stately lamps burning an otherworldly green that faded into the formless mist ahead. Despite how much closer he had drawn, the castle was still cast in shadow. He pressed on, setting each pair of flickering lamps behind him, until the castle ahead and the forest behind were both lost in the mist. 

When he reached the castle entrance, it felt both long overdue and disarmingly sudden. He hadn’t yet raised his hand to the wrought iron knocker on the doors before they creaked slowly open.

The sconces in the entrance hall began to ignite, rows of flickering green extending into the belly of the castle. 

He passed below the massive chandelier, glittering in the surreal candlelight, and on through the open door between the staircases. The passage within hung close and narrow, the ceiling only inches from the ends of his fingertips. The damp cool began to drop by degrees, until Riku’s breath ghosted in front of his mouth. 

The passageway opened into a small, intimate room, and Riku startled and the sight of a figure standing in its center.

The figure startled with him. He raised a tentative hand and waved it, and breathed a deep sigh of relief when he recognized it as his reflection. 

He ascended the handful of narrow stairs onto a richly embroidered rug. On all sides, stretching to the elevated ceiling of the hexagonal room, were mirrors, ringed at their edges in pale frost.

He drew closer and touched his fingers to the glass. It was ice-cold and solid.

Another face drifted into view: pale, narrow, and crowned by curling horns.

Riku spun, pressing back into the wall.

“It’s terribly rude to arrive uninvited,” Maleficent said. “Even to one’s own home.”

Riku could taste the copper and bile carried on his pulse. “Where is he?” he demanded.

Maleficent straightened indignantly. “Your toy?” she said. “My—has he broken?”

Riku took a step away from the wall. Anger surged up in him. “You know something,” he hissed. “You _always_ know something.”

Maleficent gave her head a small, mournful shake. “Now, child,” she lamented, “I have aspirations at work far beyond the grieving of mortals.”

Riku glared daggers at her as she drew towards him, her cloak trailing smoothly along the floor. He still had to look up to hold her eye, but he had grown considerably since he’d stood bedside her. Now he stood apart.

“You’re lying,” he said.

“Such talent squandered,” Maleficent murmured. “All for the wisdom of fools.”

She touched a hand to his face, her fingers cold as ice, her claw-like nails chilling him to the bone. He jerked back, and saw that her fingertips were bright with blood.

Riku raised a hand to his jaw. It was wet and stinging where he had bullied through the thorns.

“It breaks my heart,” Maleficent said. “A worthy apprentice, relenting to the weakness of such temporary things.”

“You don’t have a heart,” Riku answered through clenched teeth, “and I’m not interested in your pity.”

Maleficent sighed. She curled her bloodied fingers into her palm, and it faded to oxidized brown, then to gray ash. She brushed it away. “Children are always ungrateful,” she mused. “You believe me to be disingenuous?”

Riku glared at her, fire flaring in his chest. 

She sighed again. “I offered you the only thing of true value in the world,” she said. “Power. An opportunity to transform this existence. An opportunity for transcendence.” She reached for him again, and this time her hand clenched around his chin, holding it firmly in place. “You believe I have used you—perhaps I have. In this, too, I have given you a gift. And for all that, still you choose to live a pauper’s life. To die, as all mortals are destined, loathe though they are to accept it.”

Riku felt the fire in his chest climb into his throat, a dangerous, vulnerable burn.

“He didn’t deserve it,” he said, the words harsh. “It wasn’t _his_ destiny.”

She released him, and he rubbed his cheek with a thumb, tender from the steel of her grip. He turned away and ducked his head. In the cold, hollow glass, the only one who could see him was his own reflection.

“Destiny is fickle,” Maleficent chided. “A fantasy with only one true end. This world is cold, child. You’ll come to see that soon enough.”

Riku set his hands against the mirror, the frost sticking to his skin.

He thought of Sora, sun-dappled and sprawling on bleached white sands. He thought of the warm reds and glowing orange of sunset, tangled and wandering through Sora’s hair, the heat of his palms on the side of Riku’s face.

His breath left the safety of his body and turned to fog against the icy glass. He thought of the night at the end of those sunsets, after the daytime had drowned in the sea.

For a moment, he almost believed her.

He turned, new conviction sharp on the tip of his tongue, but Maleficent was gone, and the space where she stood was filling with creeping, searching thorns.

A prison of brick and stone hung over Riku’s head, and he was alone again.

**Author's Note:**

> this was supposed to be a warmup but i think abt Riku confronting adults who manipulated him and get possessed!!  
> u can find me on twitter @ rikurespecter if u want updates & previews, or want to listen to me gripe my way thru the draft of a novel-length au for some reason 😂


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